Curious about the persistence of the Kondo phenomenon, I started watching it this week. In each episode, Kondo pays a series of visits to a family in the Los Angeles area and gently leads them toward a tidier home through the KonMari method.

Kondo is a sweet, comforting presence. She always cheers a family’s progress and never criticizes their shortcomings.

The show also follows a rhythm that I found soothing to watch. Watching a space progress from cluttered to chaotic to neat is the nesting equivalent of “The Great British Bake-Off.” It allows you to entertain the brief fantasy that domestic rigor can provide you with a direct route to calmness and happiness.

Of course, this is only a fantasy. As we’ve learned through multiple waves of the feminist movement, it can also be an oppressive trap.

The economic struggles of the past several decades have created another twist. Today’s struggling, overworked households have neither the time nor the money to create the idyllic homes they wish they could have. These realities are what creates the tension in “Tidying Up.” (Like all good reality show producers, these recognize that social sensibilities and family dynamics are far more interesting than the show’s presumed subject.)

The grim labor divisions of today’s heterosexual families are a recurring theme — the figure of the overburdened mother, weeping over the uselessness of her husband and offspring, pops up over and over again. Kondo never mentions the word “feminism,” but it’s there in the way she always comforts the mother and tenderly insists that each member of the household take responsibility for their own space.

While overt discussion of economic stress would ruin the softness of the Kondo mood, it, too, hovers like a storm cloud.

“Rachel and the kids are definitely not getting the best of me,” says Kevin Friend, the father in the first episode, after complaining about his long work hours and the frustration they create at home.

The third episode, “The Downsizers,” is about the delightful Mersier family, who are struggling to contain their possessions in reduced circumstances. The show whizzes right past their anxiety.

But then, Kondo is focused on making the best of things. Sometimes that’s necessary, too, and to her credit, Kondo keeps returning to a message about possessions that Americans rarely hear: gratitude.

“The ultimate goal of tidying is to appreciate what you have,” she says.

It’s a simple sentiment that Kondo applies to both things and people. “Couples can deepen their ties through tidying,” she says.

It sounds hokey, but she means it. After watching family after family trash heaps of their useless possessions and come to a greater understanding of each other through what they chose to keep, I started to believe it too.

Kondo’s message is also a welcome — and potentially radical — one for us to hear in a moment when hate dominates our political atmosphere and our desire for more and more possessions is creating ecological havoc.